[mythtv-users] Track down unstable hardware?

[jarpublic at gmail.com]

On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 2:20 PM, <jarpublic at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Jelte Veldstra <jelte.veldstra at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> If it's not related to system load then I would start testing the memory.
>> Running memtest86 for a full day should show or rule out memory issues.
>> Downloading the "ultimate boot disk" should give you memtest86 and a couple
>> of other test utilities. Utilities that stress the CPU are good tools to
>> test cooling and the powersupply.
>>
>>
> Thanks for the tips. I think I ran memtest86 overnight a few months back
> and it passed. Maybe I should run it for a longer time. Is there a good
> linux utility for stress testing that would allow my to simultaneously
> monitor temperatures? Also the kernel panic at boot that says it failed to
> sync, does that give any clue about what may be failing? I tried googling
> but did get much headway there.
>

After the most recent hang I let the system sit for a couple of hours and
then I booted it up again. It got to the point where it was starting
mythfrontend and then it just sat there for a minute of two with the theme
background up but none of the actual menu options showing up yet. It
wouldn't respond to mouse or keyboard. So I tried to ssh in, and I was
actually able to get in this time. I ran top and it showed that mythfrontend
was using 100% of the CPU. So I used to tail to check the mythfrontend log
to see if I could see what was going on. It had the following:

tail /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log
2009-02-09 17:39:58.938 Using screen 0, 640x480 at 0,0
2009-02-09 17:39:58.939 No theme dir: /home/jruss/.mythtv/themes/MythCenter
2009-02-09 17:39:58.941 Switching to square mode (MythCenter)
2009-02-09 17:39:59.623 Using the OpenGL painter
2009-02-09 17:39:59.624 JoystickMenuClient Error: Joystick disabled - Failed
to read /home/jruss/.mythtv/joystickmenurc
2009-02-09 17:39:59.755 lirc init success using configuration file:
/home/jruss/.mythtv/lircrc
2009-02-09 17:40:08.134 Loading from:
/usr/share/mythtv/themes/MythCenter/base.xml
2009-02-09 17:40:10.036 Loading from:
/usr/share/mythtv/themes/default/base.xml
2009-02-09 17:40:11.117 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
2009-02-09 17:40:12.483 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x100, gif,jpg,png)

I couldn't see anything of not there. Then after a few more seconds it
dropped my network connection and the machine was completely frozen and
inaccessible again. I rebooted again and I get the following kernel panic:

Starting up...
[   2.464672] Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try Passing init=
option to kernel

Any ideas? Is this a drive failure? Why would mythfrontend be maxing out the
system for a few minutes before the crash? Why would it work again if I just
wait long enough? Any help on trouble shooting would be appreciated.
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